Can-filling machine



(No Model.)

. 4 Sheets-Sheet 1. F. M. NICHOLS. GAN FILLING MACHINE.

Patented July 30, 1889.

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(No Model.) I 4 Sheets-Sheet .2. F. M. NICHOLS.

7 CAN FILLING MACHINE. No. 407,943. I Patented Jul 'so, 1889.

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(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 3. F. M. NICHOLS.

CAN FILLING MACHINE.

No. 407,943. Patented July so; 1889* wmvsssm;

ATTORNEY v N PETERS, Phmo-Limogn mr. wnhin mn. D. c.

(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 4.

- F. M. NICHOLS. CAN FILLING MACHINE.

No. 407,943. Patented July 30, 1889..

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ATTORNEY N4 PETERS. PhOM-Lilhogmphar. Wnhingon. 0,0.

UNITE STATES ATENT FFICE,

FRANCIS" M. NICHOLS, OF OHILLICOTHE, OHIO.

CAN-FILLING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 407,943, dated. July 30, 1889.

Application filed May 10, 1888. Serial No. 273,435. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANCIS M. NioHoLs, of Ohillicothe, in the county of Ross and State of Ohio, have invented a new and Im proved Can-Filling Machine, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to an improvement in apparatus for filling cans with corn, tomatoes, and other vegetables, meats, fish, and similar goods, and has. for its object to provide a means whereby the material will be automatically fed in proper quantities to the cans, and wherein also the cans will be automatically fed forward toreceive therein the proposed contents and the further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus convenient of manipulation, and simple and d urable in construction.

The invention consists in the construction and combination of the several parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a central vertical section through the body'of the machine. Fig. 2 is a side elevation with the magazine partly broken away and in section. Fig. 3 is an end View. Fig. 4 is a plan view; and Fig. 5 is a detail vertical sectional view through the can -trou gh and table and also the magazine. Fig. 6 is a perspective of the measure-carrier, the parts being disconnected; and Fig. 7 is a plan of.

the bed-plate 42.

In carrying out the invention the body of the machine consists of two spaced tables 10 and 11, which are supported and held in a horizontal position one above the other bymeans of standards 12, adapted for attachment to the floor, the two tables being united by transverse vertical partitions 13, preferably located one at each side of the center, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Upon the upper table 10, 'near one end, an essentially U-shaped frame 1 1 is secured the members whereof extend vertically upward, the inner member being higher than the outer member. From the outer face of the said longer member of the frame, at the top and near the center, horizontal lugs and 16 are projected, in which lugs a vertical shaft 17 is held for reciprocation, which shaft is provided at the lower end with a preferably cylindrical plunger 18.

The plunger-shaft is actuated through the medium of a horizontal drive-shaft 19, journaled in the members of the frame 14, provided upon one outer end, between the framelugs 15 and 16,with an attached disk 20, having a wrist-pin 21 and a pitman 22 pivoted, respectively, to the said wrist-pin, and a pin 23, horizontally secured in the upper end of the plunger-shaft, as best shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Between the members of the said frame 14 fast and loose pulleys 24c and 25 are mounted upon the drive-shaft and to the outer projecting end of said shaft, a cam-disk 26 is secured having one-half of its periphery struck from a shorter radius than the other, whereby the two cam-surfaces 27 and 28 are obtained.

In suitable hangers 29, projected downward from the under table 11, a horizontal shaft 30 is journaled, one end of which shaft, extending outward, is provided with a rigidly-secured ratchet-wheel 31.

Between the collar or bearing of the hanger and the inner face of the ratchet a longitudinallyslotted rod 32, which 1 term a throwrod, is loosely mounted at one end upon the horizontal shaft 30.

A shouldered post is rigidly held by means of a suitable washer and lock-nut at any desired point in theslot of the throw-rod,

the posit-ion of the post determining the length of the throw of the said rod, which receives motion from the cam-disk 26. Motion is communicated to said throw-rod from the di, through a pitman 34., pivoted at one end to a wristpin 35, located near the periphery of the disk upon its outer face adjacent to the intersection of the aforesaid cam-surfaces 27 and 28, as best shown in Fig. 3, the lower end ment with the ratchet.

A circular opening 41 is formed inthe upper table 10, and below said opening an essentially circular bed-plate 42 is horizontally supported between the upper and lower tables 10 and 11 by an attachment in any approved manner to the vertical partitions 13, as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The bed-plate is provided with a central aperture and a larger aperture 43 in vertical alignment with the plunger 18. In the aperture 43 a funnel 44 is secured flush with the upper face of the bed-plate, which funnel is extended below the plate and is adapted to deliver the materials to the cans, as will be hereinafter set forth.

In the opening 41 of the table 10 a cylindrical measure-carrier 45 is held to revolve upon the bed-plate 42, the said measure-carrier consisting of two spaced horizontal disks 46 and 47, each provided with a series of vertically-aligning apertures and cylinders open at top and bottom, fitted in and secured to the walls of each of the said aligning apertures, whereby the two disks are connected, and a series of extensible cells or chambers 48 provided. The cylinders 46 of the upper disk 46 slide freely in the cylinders 47 of the lower disk 47, so that by raising or lowering the upper disk the capacity of the cells or chambers 48 can be increased or diminished, as may be desired. The funnel 44 will be sufficiently large to receive the contents of a cell or chamber when adjusted to its full capacity. The adjustment of the two series of cylinders 46 47 is accomplished by turning the screws or bolts 1 by their upper squared ends. These bolts at their lower ends turn freely in the lower disk 47, and are there shouldered, as shown at 2, to prevent any vertical movement. The bolts at their threaded portions pass through screw-threaded apertures in the upper disk 46, and hence the upper disk with its cylinders will be raised or lowered whenever the bolts are turned, and the nuts 3 are then rotated till they bind against the upper disk to prevent the bolts from accidentally turning.

The measure-carrier is guided in its rotation upon the bed-plate by means of one or two concentric annular ribs 49 upon the upper surface of the latter, entering a similar groove in the bot-tom disk of the carrier. In order to rotate the carrier, a shaft 50 is projected upward from the horizontal shaft 30, through the lower table 11, the central opening in the bed-plate, and also through the carrier, to which latter the shaft is secured at the upper end by means of a collar integral with the upper disk-section, as shown in Fig. 1, or in any other approved manner. The lower end of the perpendicular shaft 50 is provided with an attached outer gear 51,

meshing with a similar pinion 52, fast upon the horizontal shaft 30.

Upon the upper surface of the lower table 11, immediately below the funnel 1n the bedplate, a trough 53 is secured, extending from one side of the table transversely the same and beyond the opposite side, as best shown in Fig. In the outer extended end of the trough a carriage 54 is held to reciprocate, provided at the inner end with a recess adapted to the contour of the can employed,

flanged upper longitudinal edges 55 bearing zontal shaft 61 is journaled parallel with the longer horizontal shaft 30, one end. of the shaft 61 having a pinion 62 secured thereto, meshing with a spur-wheel 63 upon the shaft 30. The opposite end of the short shaft 61 is provided with an attached disk 63, the lug of the carriage being connected with the disk by an adjustable connecting-rod 61, pivoted in the extremity of the said lug and to a Wrist-pin upon the disk. In the bottom of the trough, and in alignment with the aperture in baseplate, an aperture is produced adapted to receive a vertically-reciprocating table 64,which table is provided upon its under side with a post 65, pivoted to one end of a lever 66, fulcrumed at its center beneath the lower frametable 11. The opposite end of the lever 66, projecting beyond the end of the'table, is pivoted to a vertical rod 67, held to reciprocate in suitable bearings, the upper end of which rod, which is provided with a friction-roller 68, being held in contactwith the periphery of the cam-disk by means of a coiled spring 69 on the rod 67 and bearing on a bracket 70,

as shown in Fig. 1.

The measure-carrier is rotated the distance of one cell or chamber 48 at every rotation of the cam 26, and the table 64 is held raised so long as the cam-surface 27 acts on the rod 67, and the cutaway portion 28 of the cam allows the spring 69 to withdraw the table until another can is fed by the carriage 54 into position. The plunger 18 is timed to enter the cell or chamber 48 while the can is elevated by the table 64, and just after the table descends the plunger will be raised, the car- Beneath the side of the table' from which the trough projects a short hori- IIO riage feeds another can into position, and the Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a can-filling machine, a measure-carrier consisting of the upper and lower disks secured together, each provided with a series of tubes or cylinders open at both ends, the tubes of one disk sliding within those of the other, substantially as set forth.

2. In a can-filling machine, the measurecarrier consisting of the upper and lower disks, their telescoping tubes or cylinders open at both ends, and the screws or bolts turning at their lower ends in the lower disk and passing at their threaded upper ends through screw-threaded apertures in the upper disk, and the binding-nuts on the upper ends of said bolts or screws, substantially as set forth.

3. A can filling machine comprising the frame, the rotary horizontal measure-carrier, the vertical shaft 50, the horizontalmain shaft 30, geared to shaft 50. the vertically-reciprocating plunger 18, operated by the upper shaft 19, having an eccentric 20, connected with the plunger, a cam-disk 26, also on said shaft 19, a rod 34, connected at its upper end to said cam-disk, a pawl-and-ratchet mechanism connecting the lower end of said rod with the shaft 30, the trough 50, the frame 44, the shaft 61 at right angles to the trough and geared to the shaft 30, the carriage 54 in the outer end of the trough, an eccentric and rod operating the carriage from the shaft 61, the verticallyrocking lever 66, the table 64 at the inner end thereof in the bottom of the trough under the funnel, the vertical rod 67, pivoted at its lower end to the outer end of lever 66, and a spring throwing the rod upward against the periphery of the cam-disk 26, all combined and operating substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. In a can-filling machine constructed substantially as set forth, the combination, with the shaft 50, measure-carrier 45, shaft 30, and connecting-gear, of the ratchet 31, fast on shaft 30, slotted arm 32, loose on said shaft and provided with a spring-pawl, the cam -disk 26, having pin 35, and the adjustable rod 34, connected at its upper end to the said pin and screw-threaded at its lower end, the post 33', secured in the slot of the arm 32, and having a transverse aperture through which the lower end of the rod 34 passes, and the nuts 36 37 on the screw-threaded end of the rod above and below the post, substantially as shown and described.

FRANCIS M. NICHOLS.

\Vitnesses:

JOHN C. ENTREKIN, LUTHER B. YAPLE. 

